HORSE SHOWS: PATTERNSWireframing & Prototyping/Visual Design/Creative Direction

Reinventing the way equestrian

riders train for horse shows

BACKGROUNDThe horse show industry is comprised of

2 major riding styles: English & Western.

Both of these styles train very differently

as the courses require different

maneuvers from the rider and horse.

On average, about 500,000 riders

compete each year in one show or more.

Riders train everyday to learn the courses

they will be competing on. They hire

private trainers and spend countless

hours with them to build up their skill for

upcoming shows.

BACKGROUND

THE CHALLENGEWhen it comes time for riders of the

equestrian industry to show, they tend to

need a lot of practice. Learning the

course patterns used in shows not only

takes weeks & months of practice, but

also a ton of money for a private trainer.

There needed to be a way for riders to

have a course trainer at their fingertips at

any given time of the day.

THE CHALLENGE

Concepting began by researching the

equestrian industry, studying the course

patterns & sketching.

SKETCHESTo beign with, the top level framework of

the app was drawn on paper. It was really

helpful to iterate and find what the layout

needs and and how the user experience

will flow.

1. SKETCHES

WIREFRAMESThe next step was to wireframe the

sketches. These wireframes were made to

quickly create UI elements without

thinking about colors or art direction.

2. WIREFRAMES

2 of 10BACK

END Western HorsemanshipJunior Level 1 - Open

START YOUR TRAINING

Winter Equestrian Festival

WESTERN HORSEMANSHIP

BA

HORSE SHOWS

THE VISUALSFor the high fidelity mockups, a

minimalistic approach styled with big

photos was the visual direction decided

upon. To keep the sophisticated look &

feel of the equestrian industry, dark blues

and greys complimented by a bright red

call to action were used. These colors

seem to fit perfectly with horse show

riders as they use the same colors on their

uniforms.

3. THE VISUALS

USER TESTINGBefore the build began, a soft prototype

was needed. The frames were put into

Invision App. Three different course trails

were pre-built into the step-by-step

walkthrough so it could go through

rigorous testing.

We sent the Invision App link to 30 riders.

Let the feedback begin…

4. USER TESTING

The Invision App was reviewed by riders from both

the English & Western industries. The main concerns

they had was with the course walkthrough. It needed to

show when the horse should change it’s speed as it

progresses through the course.

HORSE SPEED FIXAs horses are progressing through the

course, they need to maintain a certain

speed based on the course designers’

specs & the obstacle they’re on. These

speeds are normally marked up by the

rider in different color highlighters to

easily determine what the speed is.

To address this issue, the horse circle

would change colors based on the current

obstacle it was on. There will also be a

little tag header in the upper-right corner

of the detail cell.

5. HORSE SPEED FEATURE

JOG

SIDE PASS

LOPE

WALK

BACK

The horse speed feature was

reviewed and passed with flying colors.

(no pun intended)

TECHNOLOGYThe app is currently being built in Swift as

a native iOS app. For the backend, a few

key technologies are being used like

GraphQL, Ruby, Node & PostgreSQL.

There’s about 4-5 weeks left of the build

then the beta will launch to 85-90 riders

using Apple’s beta program: TestFlight.

6. TECHNOLOGY

After beta testing, the plan is to gather feedback from the 85-90

riders and prioritize the issues & features in order from critical

to least important. Since the hard launch is a month after beta,

critical issues & features will have to be implemented in a timely manner. October is the launch date to the public.

HORSE SHOWS: PATTERNSComing to iOS October 1st, 2016…